This year is the 250th anniversary of Phillis Wheatley’s work Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first volume published by an African American woman in English. Despite racial prejudice, Phillis’s…
People in Scotland, and all around the world, will be cutting into a haggis today or lifting a wee dram to the memory of Robert Burns, our national poet. Like many Scottish libraries, St Andrews has many editions of…
Queen Elizabeth II is the first British Monarch to celebrate 70 years of service. Her reign is already longer than the reigns of her four predecessors put together. To mark the Platinum Jubilee weekend, we thought we…
“Kennedy’s college, dedicated to the Holy Saviour, was founded on the site which it has ever since occupied in North Street on 27 August 1450. On the same memorable day, the Bishop issued his charter of foundation,…
This week we mark the centenary of the death of Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American steel magnate and philanthropist, who gave away almost 90% of his fortune (almost $5 billion in 2019 value) between his retirement in…
As part of our occasional audio-visual blog series, this week we look at (and listen to!) the Tullis Russell brass band, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year and whose 1969 50th anniversary album is preserved…
Daniel Defoe’s castaway tale, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was first published 300 years ago on 25th April 1719, Defoe’s debut as a writer of fiction. The first edition did not carry…
Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Victorian art critic John Ruskin (8 February 1819-20 January 1900). Born in London, John Ruskin was the only son of John James Ruskin, a sherry importer and Margaret…
To start off the new year, our Photographic Collections Manager takes a look at the daguerreotypes in the Library’s photographic collections on the anniversary of Daguerre’s announcement to the world of his new…
Today is the 100th Anniversary of the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act, November 1918 which allowed women to stand as Members of Parliament. For more on the struggle for equal representation why not have a look…